Report Ties Lack of Female Developers to Middle School Class Choices

July 27, 2015

By Developer.com Staff

Economists Donna Ginther and Shulamit Kahn have published a new paper which claims that women don't pursue careers in technology and science because they don't know enough math. "It is all about the mathematical content of the field," said Ginther. "Girls not taking math coursework early on in middle school and high school are set on a different college trajectory than boys." She added, "Really it happens a lot earlier than college."

The two economists studied the topic in order to debunk an earlier paper which said that faculty biases were keeping women from pursuing computer science and other STEM careers. "Their results didn’t add up," said Ginther.